Sunday, January 31st, 2021

Time	Event
12:05p	Rights Alliance Warns That Persistent BitTorrent Pirates Face Prosecution In the closing months of 2020, enforcement measures against private torrent sites in Denmark became evident when the alleged 69-year-old operator of NordicBits was arrested by Spanish police. Then, following a complaint from local anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime (SØIK) had a 33-year-old Danish man arrested in Morocco on suspicion of running DanishBits. With both sites shut down, two other sites – Asgaard and ShareUniversity – opened their doors to new members but were quickly warned they too faced similar treatment. Asgaard quickly shut itself down as did ShareUniversity, but fresh arrests earlier this month showed that the authorities were ready to pursue their operators. Attention Switches To Persistent BitTorrent Pirates When torrent sites shut down, there is a tendency among users to find new homes, as illustrated by the exodus from NordicBits and DanishBits to would-be replacements. While this can happen seamlessly, the authorities in Denmark have already signaled the possibility of tracking down site users, using data obtained during earlier raids. “The most important thing is clearly to stop the illegal services, but it can certainly not be ruled out that seized data can lead to the identification of the users of the two illegal networks,” Deputy Police Inspector Michael Lichtenstein said in December. It’s not uncommon for pirates to dismiss these kinds of statements as scare tactics or lacking in substance but there are now signs that SØIK and Rights Alliance intend to make good on their warning. In a statement published Friday, Rights Alliance says that it intends to “sharpen its focus” on these entrenched users “who stubbornly stick to their illegal activities.” Referencing the closure of Asgaard and the associated arrests, Rights Alliance notes that SØIK is maintaining a keen interest in persistent pirates, something that it believes is “enormously important” in its battle to prevent online copyright infringement. According to the anti-piracy group, its earlier actions against the sites listed above reduced the number of private tracker users by more than 75% but that leaves around 25% who, despite the enforcement actions, still aren’t getting the message. As a result, further measures will be taken. “With the IP Task Force behind it, technical insight and access to the illegal services where the Danish incarnated users have moved from, it is now possible to take an active part in sanctioning them,” Rights Alliance warns. Interestingly, the anti-piracy group makes a specific reference to users deploying anonymization techniques, noting that they have the tools to unmask them, whether they’re using a VPN or not. TorrentFreak asked for more information on this claim but Rights Alliance declined to elaborate at the moment, instead offering to supply more information in the coming weeks. Warning To Operators and Users Of New Pirate Sites With Asgaard and ShareUniversity no longer open for DanishBits and NordicBits refugees to get their file-sharing fix, there are reports that other sites are already stepping in to bridge the gap. However, Rights Alliance warns that these services won’t be the safe haven most users prefer. “In the coming period, the Rights Alliance’s activities will be focused on the perpetrators and users of the newly established Danish services, including NorTor, which is trying to establish itself after the closures in December,” the group says. NorTor is a reference to NordicTorrent (NorTor.org), a torrent site that’s attempting to get off the ground at the moment. The site’s operators bought the domain at the end of December and appear to be using hosting registered in Seychelles. Potential visitors should also be aware that while easily blocked, the platform already has not one but two cryptocurrency miners running on its main page. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. (Comment on this)
9:51p	US Court Orders Avid Torrenter to Pay Over $108K in Piracy Damages By now most BitTorrent users should be well aware that their IP-addresses and downloads can be easily monitored. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of lawsuits against video pirates, both in the US and abroad. In the US the vast majority of these cases are filed by Strike 3 Holdings. The company produces adult entertainment videos that are made available via the Blacked, Tushy, and Vixen websites. When these videos leak and are shared on pirate sites, Strike 3 takes action. Copyright Trolls This scheme, which is often referred to as copyright-trolling, can be both simple and lucrative. The company files complaints against John Does who are initially only known by an IP-address. It then requests a subpoena to obtain the subscriber details to demand a settlement from the account holder. In many cases, the accused pirate will settle out of court. Those who refuse to do so will be named in the lawsuit, where they are allowed to file a defense. At that point, the stakes have become significantly higher. Retaining a lawyer can be more costly than a settlement, which isn’t a luxury everyone can afford. The alternative is to simply ignore the lawsuit by not responding at all. That initially doesn’t cost anything but, at the end of the road, it may only make matters worse. Strike 3 Sues Prolific ‘Pirate’ This is what happened to ‘Paul H’ who was sued by Strike 3 Holdings in 2018. The company accused him of sharing 145 of their videos via BitTorrent without permission. In addition, the company also monitored other piracy activity that was linked to ‘interests’ from his public social media profile. For example, the complaint mentions that Paul works in the engineering industry, has an interest in science, and likes the TV-show Myth Busters. This matches with the download history, which includes Myth Busters downloads as well as engineering, astronomy, and chemistry e-books. Despite these direct accusations, the accused pirate didn’t file a response to the complaint. He didn’t respond at all, which prompted Strike 3 to file for a default judgment. While the company only requested the minimum statutory damages of $750 per title, that adds up to a massive amount. $108,750 Default Judgment Earlier this month the court handed a relatively easy win to Strike 3, concluding that the adult entertainment company has a legitimate claim and that the damages are reasonable. As a result, Paul H. now owes Strike 3 $108,750 in damages. If anything, the above shows that completely ignoring these cases can be disastrous. Although defendants may rightfully feel that all options are bad when it comes to these matters, it can’t get much worse than this. While we don’t know if the defendant was indeed guilty or not, people who are sued despite being innocent should definitely consider fighting back. There have been numerous examples of Strike 3 and similar companies dropping claims when they are contested. In fact, in some cases, defendants come out as the clear winners. That’s also what happened in a Malibu Media lawsuit recently. Defendants Can Win Like Strike 3, Malibu Media is known as a prolific filer of ‘copyright-trolling’ lawsuits. While the company appears to have stopped filing federal lawsuits months ago, there are still unresolved cases in various court dockets. This includes one where it accused William Mullins of downloading 11 pirated videos. Mullins fought back and contested the evidence up to the point where Malibu Media agreed to dismiss its claims. However, that wasn’t the end of it. Mullins continued to fight the case, demanding compensation for the legal fees he paid over the years. The defendant argued that Malibu Media didn’t properly back up its claim and repeatedly refused to hand over evidence of the alleged infringement. After weighing all factors, the Illinois federal court agreed with the defendant, ordering Malibu to pay his attorney’s fees. A Limited Victory The above shows that fighting back can help, but even with a success like this, the end result is far from perfect. Even though the accused downloader came out as the winner, the court only awarded the costs that were made before November 14, 2019, the date when Malibu dropped its claims. This means that in the end nobody is really happy with the outcome. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. (Comment on this)

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